The Malazan Books of the Fallen - Doorstop Fantasy at its finest?

[knivesout]

Heh. You can post a spoiler-less assessment of the book though, if you want to and can. I'd certainly like to hear your take on it.

[Falagar]

I think I'll wait untill I've finished the book. But if you liked Trull Sengar from House of Chains you're going to love this one. (hope that wasn't too much of a spoiler).

[knivesout]

Look, Salon has a write-up on 'em: http://www.salon.com/books/review/20...son/print.html

[Falagar]

Yeah, I read that article and it pretty much describes why I'm into the series as well. Finished MT a few days ago but have been working + training and way too tired to come up with anything...

[seerdon]

Reply to this please... I just noticed that the last post was about six months ago

Haven't posted for a while... but I got Gardens of the Moon for my birthday and I am waiting for an opportunity to buy Deadhouse Gates. I am not as far through the series as the rest of you, not having the financial means at my disposal with which to stock up on the rest of the books, but I'd like to add something to the general feeling of awe that this post has built up. The climax to Gardens of the Moon was f**king the best thing I have read, ever. Over the last couple hundred pages I could start to see the different threads come together, and I actually felt genuinely nervous as it all started to center around Dajhuristan, which is not a feeling I often get when reading. I don't know how Erikson managed to hold so many plot threads in his mind as he wrote it, God knows I could hardly manage to make sense of it (I had to stop every few chapters and assimilate what I had read!) but it is genius. Looking forward to Deadhouse Gates, you all seem to think it's the best... don't know how I'll cope with new characters and places, but that's part of the whole attraction of the series, I think. Amazing stuff.

I also got A Game of Thrones, which was brilliant too in a different way. To my mind it had more solidity to the plot, and it was definitely easier to read. Martin is also an excellent author, although I would agree with what other people have said on this post, that his prose has less of a unique style to it than Erikson's. I don't think we can really compare the two, because they are trying to do different things with their books, and they are both sublime anyway. Fantasy is so amazing...

Whew!

[knivesout]

Reply provided as requested.


Glad you're enjoying the books, Seerdon. It's been a while since I read Gardens of the Moon, but I do recall that it built up to a resounding climax in Darujhistan. Deadhouse Gates is a bit disorienting at first, but what a book - filled with honour, hardhsip and tragedy. I understand that there are plans to film just parts of this book as a standalone movie - the whole Chain of Dogs plotline. That would make a great movie if done well.

[Rane Longfox]

Its true, the climax is absolutely stunning. Many people complain that after the first few hundred pages they're too confused too read on. Glad you didn't have that problem, and realised how good a books it is. Ekirson is very good at his climaxes all the way through the series... Especially Deadhouse Gates, but I'll say no more than that

Hope you enjoy the rest of them as much

[Lord of Winterfell]

Doorstopper fantasy at its best? Not quite IMHO. At its best (Deadhouse, Memories) the Malazan series can match ASoIaF blow for blow. Unfortunately, its position in the fantasy hierarchy will always be hampered by a troublesome opening act. Let's face it, alot of people have trouble getting through Gardens of the Moon. I know I did, and I'm glad I did because Deadhouse rocked my world. But some stop reading the series at this point. A very big problem for a series wanting to play with the big boys. And after the very good Memories of Ice I felt let down by House of Chains - the expected brilliant Erikson climax just kinda fizzled... and Karsa... don't get me started on that one.

I guess I'm just trying to say the the series feels a bit uneven. When its great, it is something special... but it has its rough patches. People praise Erikson for the pace in which he gets his books out, and bemoan GRRM for the glacial pace he writes. I think Martin's series benefits greatly from the extra time devoted in creating a cohesive narrative which is of high quality from book to book.

I sometimes think it would benefit Mr. Erikson to re-write Gardens of the Moon, especially the first half... he is losing alot of potential readers who don't have the determination to get through that book. But I would guess that the chances of this are slim...

I hope to pick up Midnight Tides soon in the hope that it improves on House of Chains.

Oh yeah, I'm new here.

[Rane Longfox]

I would argue that anyone who couldn't make it through the first one probably wouldn't enjoy the rest of the series anyway.
The Karsa episode was weird, and I didn't like it very much. It's not his normal style of writing, and it didn't fit in... I'll forgive him that though, of the quality of the rest of it

Midnight Tides is again very different to Erikson's usual style of writing. There is more comedy in it, and some people thing this detracts from the storyline, but I disagree. It concentrates a bit less on the soldiers' side of things (which I think is Erikson's strength), but still manages to be a very good novel in the same vein as the previous ones. The best way I can describe it is as if you're observing the whole story from further away, as opposed to the very close-at-hand narrative of the previous books. This is not the case throughout the entire book, but you are generally more aware of the bigger picture than you have been before.

One of the main characters is no where near the inevitable fighting, which has never really happened before either, but Erikson writes him well, even though he has to use the comedy aspect of his style to make it work...


Welcome to the forums, by the way

[Lord of Winterfell]

Thanks for the welcome Brood.

Yeah, its things like the Karsa storyline - which lasted for 200 pages and felt out of place - that hurts the argument that this is the best series out there. Like I said, at its finest moments (end of Deadhouse) its mindblowingly good. But there are too many lulls... do I even need to mention the Mhybe storyline? That was goddawful boring. If he could just reign his story in a bit it would really help. At times it feels like he is not in full control of this great beast of a story he has created.

My screen name suggests that I worship at the GRRM altar and I plead guilty on that count, but Erikson is a worthy contender for sure.

[hodor]

I have ordered the first three books in the Malazan series and expected them a week from now... however, they have been delayed and I won't see them for at least ten days. I, too, worship at the GRRM altar and have yet to read a series that has left me the way his did. I have heard good things about Erikson (mainly in comparison to GRRM) which is why I am starting the series. I will be sure to push through the entire series if I am not pulled as I hope to be.

[Rane Longfox]

Yeah, there are boring bits... (I disagree about the Mhybe, although her thread wasn't particularly exciting, you learn a lot about how the malazan world works, about old gods, new gods, the warrens etc. and it was nice to see some compassion amongst the blood bath that was MoI) but you can't say Martin's wasn't without them. I found a number of threads rather dull at times, but I still think its a fantastic series...

[GOLLUM]

**Apologies if you've already seen this post in the Just Started thread of this section.**

Hi all,

I’m new to this forum and am from Melbourne, Australia. Please check out my introduction on this forum!!

I’ve been reading in the fantasy genre for the last 25 years and am able to answer most queries regarding fantasy authors/series, release dates etc... Basically I'm a Steven Erikson fan (No 1. of all time) with George RR Martin at No 2. on my all time hit parade. Other authors I like include Kate Elliott, JV Jones current series, Janny Wurts, Stephen Donaldson, Paul Kearney, Robert Silverberg (Majipoor series), Tad Williams, Greg Keyes, Glen Cook and the list goes on.

Please refer to my fairly comprehensive list of recommended fantasy books over the past 25 years in the thread Your Favorite Fantasy Books under the Books and Literature forum.

Anyway, Steven Erikson’s Malazan Empire series is the best fantasy series I’ve ever read in my 25 years spent reading in this genre!!!! He’s a Canadian writer and UK based. Compared to Homer by some critics for sheer scope and complexity of storyline. Great storytelling especially for his first venture into this genre!!!!

The “Malazan Book Of The Fallen” is the series title. Malazan is the empire in charge of things like the Romans in ancient history. Steven writes 1/year, as it is part of his contract with the publisher.

It takes places currently on around 3 different continents but each novel will focus on a particular continent with characters and continents interlinked so say book 1,3 are on continent x, book 2,4 continent y etc.. Each novel is also in a sense standalone with most threads pulled together by story’s end, which is a good feature for me, so I’m not waiting for the next instalment to see if character x is about to fall of the proverbial precipice. This is not to say that the books don’t follow each other or not interlinked as they are.

As he deals with Military fantasy on the grand scale he's fairly hard edged as well as being brilliantly conceived and written. The point is Erikson drops you into his world in the middle of what is obviously an EPIC series but whilst it is not easy to follow early on he does tie most threads by books end. The last 200 pages of Book 1 is action packed, what one critic very aptly put as a 'machine gun finish" I've never read a book that was so packed in those last few hundred pages. WOW!!!! Book 2 Deadhouse Gates and the future books reach a high water mark in fantasy writing that never goes down. Anyone I know who has read Erikson immediately places him at or near to the top of the list ahead of Martin and others as great as they are. He obviously thought the entire series through extremely well from the beginning. He has a background as an anthropologist and archaeologist and it sure shows in his world building. Epic, gritty, grey characters along the lines of The Black Company, amazing complexity and magic systems!!

As I’ve stated on other forums and as other users are obviously saying here, PLEASE don’t be put off if you’re finding it hard to follow things in the first few hundred pages of book 1, lots of concepts that get fleshed out in later books appear here. By end of book 3 I had a fair handle on things.

For UK/Aus readers, Books 1 –4 are in smaller paperback, ranging from 700-1000+ pages. Book 5 is in trade paperback and 500+ pages, so plenty of reading there. Book 5 in smaller paperback, approx 700, pages comes out in March 2005. Bantam is the UK/Aus publisher. Books 1 and 2 have now come out in the US.

Malazan Book Of The Fallen

PUBLISHED UP TO 2005/Early 2006.
1. Gardens Of The Moon.
2. Deadhouse Gates
3.Memories Of Ice
4.House Of Chains
5.Midnight Tides
6.The Bonehunters (due Feb 2006).

TO BE PUBLISHED 2006 and beyond.
*NB Roughly the first five books came out around April of each year, book 6 may still be by April so basically the books come out in the first half of each year.

7.Reapers Gate (2006?)
8.Toll The Hounds (2007)
9.Dust Of Dreams (2008)
10.The Crippled God (2009)

Hope this info proves useful!!!

[Brys]

Originally Posted by tonic

Iv'e read Gardnes of the Moon and Deadhouse Gate, I'm about 100 pages in Memories of Ice and I have to say I am extremely surprised and delighted with this series. It is amazingly complex and leaves you guessing where normally you would have assumed the ending already. It's got everything from the magic that Martin doesn't have to the politics that Martin exceeds in. I think it is one of the top series I've read and reccommend it to everyone.

Memories of Ice is his best so far, I think, but all of the others are excellent.

In case anyone's wondering - Erikson has started writing book 7, and a Chain of Dogs movie (based on the chain of dogs storyline in Deadhouse Gates) is planned.

[nixie]

Karsa's storyline hasn't dulled my enjoyment of the series at all, I found it intresting, I had wondered about Sha'ik's giant bodyguard when reading DHG,and it's nice to get some background on him,ok I did wonder what on earth was going on but when I discovered who he was everything fell into place.

When is Chain of Dog's due to be released?

Hope the cinema isn't to busy... don't want everyone see me cry